School building



P 6, 1958 w. A. BOWERSOCK 2,851,739

SCHOOL BUILDING 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 8, 1954 R. I\ W H; 0 5 a A m \M r w W F iii ATTORNE "6" Sept. 16', 1958 Filed June 8, 1954 w. A. BOWERSOCK SCHOOL BUILDING 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Wa rren A. 50M? rJdc' ATTORNEYS.

United States. Patent SCHOOL BUHJDING Warren A. Bowersock, Baltimore, Md.

Application June 8, 1954, Serial No. 435,328

2 Claims. (Cl. 201.1)

The present invention relates to a school building of the character which may be employed as an elementary school, a junior high school, a high school or a college.

A purpose of the invention is to reduce the structural fire hazard in school construction and particularly to eliminate horizontal chimney effects which add to the hazard, especially on one or more upper floors.

A further purpose is to reduce the danger of panic in case of fire or other disaster affecting a school.

A further purpose is to reduce the cost of constructing school buildings.

A further purpose is to reduce the cost of operating and maintaining school buildings.

Further purposes appear in the specification and in the claims.

In the drawings I have chosen to illustrate one only of the numerous embodiments in which my invention may appear, selecting the form shown from the standpoints of convenience in illustration, satisfactory operation and clear demonstration of the principles involved.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a school building according to the invention.

Figure 2 is a rear elevation of the school building of Figure 1. v

Figure 3 is an end elevation.

Figure 4 is a floor plan illustrating the distinctive floor arrangement in accordance with the invention.

Describing in illustration but not in limitation and referring to the drawings:

School buildings are usually constructed of rectangular form in a particular unit, sometimes with several units arranged in an L, a U or a rectangle. In the typical arrangement a corridor extends longitudinally, and in the ordinary double-loaded form, school rooms are provided on both sides of the corridor usually with stairways either at the center or at both ends. In the singleloaded form the longitudinal corridor adjoins one outside wall and the rooms extend from the corridor.

A number of very serious school disasters have occurred, usually fires with or without additional elements such as explosion. At the present time the fear of military bombing has led to additional study in an effort to increase the safety of schools.

I find that the central longitudinal corridor which is normally employed in the double-loaded form, and the longitudinal side corridor used in the single-loaded form are distinct elements of danger and are believed to contribute greatly to the excessive loss of life in school disasters.

1 In the first place the corridor is likely to act as a horizontal chimney, filling with smoke, fumes and hot gases, and tending to carry these gases longitudinally to a vertical flue such as a stair well. For this reason it is believed that fire and products of explosion spread more quickly through the building than would otherwise be the case. Furthermore, as school children evacuating rooms are obliged to use the corridor, it is necessary for the children to pass through this zone of great risk in ice order to escape by normal means of egress. If the fire advances far enough to cause suffocating conditions in the corridor, the death rate is likely to be greatly increased.

In the second place, the corridor represents a hazard because in case of emergency evacuation of the school building children from class rooms discharging at intermediate points on the corridor must join the main stream in the corridor with danger of clogging of the lines, creating panic.

The usual corridor arrangement has the further disadvantage that it adds considerably to the cost of construction. In a double-loaded corridor school building it is conventional to provide two sets of columns and a double wall on each side of the corridor. There is also a need for a special depressed slab and special reinforcing at the corridor, which add to the expense.

Whether the building is single-loaded or double-loaded, the corridor space is an element of cost, both from the standpoint of initial construction, and also in regard to heating, cleaning and other maintenance. In a standard double-loaded class room wing, the class rooms are usually 24 x 32 feet in horizontal dimensions, with the length extending along the outside Wall, while the corridor Width is usually 15 to 16 feet. In the double-loaded form this calls for a building about 64 feet Wide, with two 24 foot class rooms on opposite sides of the corridor. Accordingly, about 25% of the area of the floor plan is required for the corridor.

In accordance with the present invention, the corridor is'eliminated completely on one or any desired number of floors, and the class rooms are arranged in units feed-' ing directly to opposite sides of a stair Well. The class rooms themselves are arranged back to back, so that only,

a single line of columns and a single wall need be pro vided longitudinally of the building between the class rooms.

The construction of the invention has a number of important advantages. In the first place, the safety of the building is greatly increased, both from the standpoint of fire hazard and also from the standpoint of panic in evacuation under emergency conditions, whether they may be caused by fire or an external disaster such as a military explosion. The absence of a longitudinal corridor prevents entirely the possibility of horizontal chimney efiect by such a corridor to disseminate smoke, fumes and hot gases from a fire or explosion. Accordingly in case of fire the emergency is more localized and is not distributed rapidly through the building. Furthermore, since the escape from the school rooms is directly to the stair well, danger of panic through clogging of escape at corridor doorways is avoided.

Many educators have been alarmed at the high school construction cost, which in many schools are of the order of $45,000.00 to $50,000.00 per class room. By eliminating the corridor space, eliminating three of the four sets of columns and Walls at the center of the building, and avoiding the special depressed slab usually required at the corridor, it is possible in accordance with the present invention to make an over-all construction saving of 20 to 25 percent. Thus the cost in accordance with the present invention is relatively of the order of $28,000.00 per class room rather than $45,000.00 when figured on the same basis of cost.

A further element of economy in accordance with the present invention is that toilets can be placed in the back of the stair wells, where convenient plumbing connections can be made Without interfering With structure immediately above and below.

A further economy results from the present invention because the area of the corridors does not have to be cleaned or maintained and does not have to be heated.

It will of course be understood that the invention can be applied to a single floor of a building, or to certain floors or to all the floors, and that other floor plans may be used on other floors.

It is also to be understood that the inventionds' applicable to a building in which one wing is constructed in accordance with the invention, combined with anappendage such as an auditorium or gymnasium or another Wing. of any desired character.

As shown in the drawings, the schoolcomprises a school wing 21 connected atone end to an appendage 22, suitably a gymnasium.

The school Wing 21 is a rectangular form and in the present instance comprises a basement 23, a first floor 24 and a second floor 25 covered by a roof 26. A chimney 27 is shown at one end, to indicate that the usual heating arrangements will be included.

The school wing comprises longitudinal outside walls 28 and 3t} and end walls 31 and 32.

At intervals along the wing there are stair wells 33 extending across the building, and conforming to the building code as to fire tower construction as desired. Each of the stair wells on the ground floor communicates with an entrance34 and in the Well has a stairway 35 extending up one side to a central landing or hall 36 at the floor level. It will of course be understood that if no stairway is required at the ground level, this can be omitted.

The landing or hall 36 is common to four class rooms which communicate with the stair well. These suitably comprise class rooms 37 and 38 toward the ends of the wing and class rooms 40 and 41 toward the middle of'the wing. Each of the class rooms 37, 38 and 40, 41 is separated by interior partition 42 extending longitudinally and desirably on the line of a middle row of columns 43. This partition may if desired be provided with doors 44 communicating across the building to individual class rooms. The doors preferably will be biased toward closing for safety in case of fire.

Each of the rooms 37, 38, 40 and 41 communicates by a door 45 toward the hallway or landing 36, and the main access to each class room is provided through this door. In case of emergency the door 45 will be used for escape to the stair well.

The class rooms of two units are separated by a partition 46 extending across the building, and if desired this may be a fire wall. Where need for communication exists, doorways 4-7 will be provided through the partition 46, preferably closed by doors biased towards closing as a fire protection.

The space in the stair well opposite to the stairway will conveniently be utilized for toilet rooms 48 and 50, which have the advantage that plumbing can be carried through the stair well without difliculty.

Thus it is seen by reference to Figure 4 that there is no longitudinal corridor but each group of four rooms communicates directly to the stair well, the rooms being arranged in pairs back to back, and desirably eliminating intermediate walls. Accordingly a construction of maximum safety is provided, while at the same time the cost of construction and maintenance is reduced. It will of course be evident that the engineering aspects of the building can be modified as desired, placing the exterior columns 51 at any suitable location, and using any desired arrangement and construction of exterior windows 52 in the class rooms, Windows 53 in the front of the stair well and windows 54in the back of the stair well. It will of course be evident that any desired treatment can be applied to the exterior of the building and the novel floor plan can be embodied in a building constructed of stone, brick, metallic or non-metallic siding, or other suitable material, with any desired roof formation, and with any desired subpartitioning for closets, and the like.

In view of my invention and disclosure variations and modifications to meet individual whim or particular need will doubtless become evident to others skilled in the art, to obtain all or part of the benefits of my invention without copying the structure shown, and I therefore, claim all such insofar as they fall within the reasonable spirit and scope of my claims.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A school building unit in the overall form of an oblong rectangular parallelepiped having the front and back of the unit along the long sides of the oblong and having, considered successively in a longitudinal direction with relation to the oblong: (1) A pair of rooms consisting of a front and a back room immediately against one another on the ground floor and a similarly arranged pair on the floor above them; (2)A stairwell having, in addition to stairs and level areas, rooms with toilet facilities; (3) A pair of rooms consisting of a front and a back room immediately against one another on the same ground floor level as the first mentioned pair and a similarly arranged pair on the same floor level above them' as the corresponding pair mentioned in (1); all ground floor rooms 'of' (1) and"(3) giving onto the level as that of the rooms onthe floor above of (1) to (3) on the floor above giving onto a common level area in the stairwell; (4) to (6) An arrangement corresponding to (1) to (3) respectively and having the ground floor rooms on the same ground floor level as those of 1) to (3), the-rooms on the floor above on the same level as that of the rooms on the floor above of (l) to (3), and there being as between (3) and (4) direct access between each two rooms in front at the same level and between each two rooms in the rear at the same level.

2.- A building unit of over-all rectangular form having a first floor and a second floor,'having the front and back of the unit along the long sides of the oblong and having, beginning at each short side of the oblong on each of said floors and extending toward the middle, first a front end room and a back end room occupying. the end portion, then a stair-well having a stairway and a hallway connected to the stairway and communicating with each of the two end rooms of that floor and then front and back middle rooms on that floor communicating with. the hall, each pair of front and back rooms occupying the entire distance across the building from front to back at thecorresponding position length- Wise of the building, whereby access to all four of the rooms at one end of the building on each floor is achieved through the hallway connected to the stairway.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,268,439 Dodge June 4, 1918 2,383,445 Burrows Aug. 28, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS 120,796 Great Britain Nov. 28, 1918 809,101 Germany July 23', 1951 

